1 Kings 2:13-3:28

New King James Version

Solomon Executes Adonijah

¹³ Now Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. So she said, ^(A)“Do you come peaceably?”

And he said, “Peaceably.” ¹⁴ Moreover he said, “I have something to say to you.”

And she said, “Say it.”

¹⁵ Then he said, “You know that the kingdom was ^(B)mine, and all Israel had set their expectations on me, that I should reign. However, the kingdom has been turned over, and has become my brother’s; for ^(C)it was his from the Lord. ¹⁶ Now I ask one petition of you; do not ^[a]deny me.”

And she said to him, “Say it.”

¹⁷ Then he said, “Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, that he may give me ^(D)Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”

¹⁸ So Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak for you to the king.”

¹⁹ Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and ^(E)bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne and had a throne set for the king’s mother; ^(F)so she sat at his right hand. ²⁰ Then she said, “I desire one small petition of you; do not ^[b]refuse me.”

And the king said to her, “Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”

²¹ So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”

²² And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “Now why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also—for he is my ^(G)older brother—for him, and for ^(H)Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.” ²³ Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, ^(I)“May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life! ²⁴ Now therefore, as the Lord lives, who has confirmed me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has established a ^[c]house for me, as He ^(J)promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today!”

²⁵ So King Solomon sent by the hand of ^(K)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down, and he died.

Abiathar Exiled, Joab Executed

²⁶ And to Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to ^(L)Anathoth, to your own fields, for ^[d]you are deserving of death; but I will not put you to death at this time, ^(M)because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you were afflicted every time my father was afflicted.” ²⁷ So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, that he might ^(N)fulfill the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh.

²⁸ Then news came to Joab, for Joab ^(O)had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and ^(P)took hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁹ And King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord; there he is, by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, ^(Q)strike him down.” ³⁰ So Benaiah went to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, “Thus says the king, ^(R)‘Come out!’ ”

And he said, “No, but I will die here.” And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.”

³¹ Then the king said to him, ^(S)“Do as he has said, and strike him down and bury him, ^(T)that you may take away from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed. ³² So the Lord ^(U)will return his ^[e]blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous ^(V)and better than he, and killed them with the sword—^(W)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and ^(X)Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it. ³³ Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and ^(Y)upon the head of his descendants forever. ^(Z)But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord.”

³⁴ So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. ³⁵ The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put ^(AA)Zadok the priest in the place of ^(AB)Abiathar.

Shimei Executed

³⁶ Then the king sent and called for ^(AC)Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere. ³⁷ For it shall be, on the day you go out and cross ^(AD)the Brook Kidron, know for certain you shall surely die; ^(AE)your ^[f]blood shall be on your own head.”

³⁸ And Shimei said to the king, “The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ Now it happened at the end of three years, that two slaves of Shimei ran away to ^(AF)Achish the son of Maachah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, “Look, your slaves are in Gath!” ⁴⁰ So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to seek his slaves. And Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. ⁴¹ And Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back. ⁴² Then the king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord, and warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go out and travel anywhere, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word I have heard is good.’ ⁴³ Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment that I gave you?” ⁴⁴ The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know, as your heart acknowledges, ^(AG)all the wickedness that you did to my father David; therefore the Lord will ^(AH)return your wickedness on your own head. ⁴⁵ But King Solomon shall be blessed, and ^(AI)the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.”

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and struck him down, and he died. Thus the ^(AJ)kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

Solomon Requests Wisdom^(AK)

3 Now ^(AL)Solomon made ^[g]a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s daughter; then he brought her ^(AM)to the City of David until he had finished building his ^(AN)own house, and ^(AO)the house of the Lord, and ^(AP)the wall all around Jerusalem. ^2 (AQ)Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. ³ And Solomon ^(AR)loved the Lord, ^(AS)walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.

⁴ Now ^(AT)the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(AU)for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ^5 (AV)At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon ^(AW)in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”

^6 (AX)And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he ^(AY)walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You ^(AZ)have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. ⁷ Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a ^(BA)little child; I do not know how ^(BB)to go out or come in. ⁸ And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You ^(BC)have chosen, a great people, ^(BD)too numerous to be numbered or counted. ^9 (BE)Therefore give to Your servant an ^[h]understanding heart ^(BF)to judge Your people, that I may ^(BG)discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

¹⁰ The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have ^(BH)not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, ^12 (BI)behold, I have done according to your words; ^(BJ)see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. ¹³ And I have also ^(BK)given you what you have not asked: both ^(BL)riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. ¹⁴ So ^(BM)if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, ^(BN)as your father David walked, then I will ^(BO)lengthen^[i] your days.”

¹⁵ Then Solomon ^(BP)awoke; and indeed it had been a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and ^(BQ)made a feast for all his servants.

Solomon’s Wise Judgment

¹⁶ Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and ^(BR)stood before him. ¹⁷ And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸ Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; ^[j]no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. ¹⁹ And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ²¹ And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”

²² Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”

And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”

Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ” ²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”

²⁶ Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for ^(BS)she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”

But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”

²⁷ So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the ^(BT)wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.